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Food Safety News

TORONTO — Laura Gieraltowski, lead of the Foodborne Outbreak Response Team at the CDC’s Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, presented a review of multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infections linked to melons grown in Indiana.

Speaking at the annual conference of the International Association for Food Protection, Gieraltowski highlighted the outbreak in 2012, where Salmonella-contaminated cantaloupes from a farm in southwest Indiana as the beginning of a concerning pattern. The outbreak caused illness in 261 people across 24 states, resulting in 94 hospitalizations and three deaths.

Morocco World News

Rabat – About 60 people suffered from food poisoning due to seasonal fruits in Sidi Bennour, a city 174 kilometers away from Casablanca.

A statement from local authorities said that the victims of food poisoning were admitted to the Hospital of Sidi Bennour, with preliminary data showing a consumption of seasonal fruits as a possible cause.

Several ambulances have been deployed to ensure the transfer of urgent cases that need medical care.

No information on the specific products consumed by the victims has been revealed.

The people admitted to the hospital are in stable condition, the statement said, noting that services of the National Office for Food Safety (ONSSA) intervened to take samples of the concerned products to submit them for necessary laboratory analyses.

The Print

Rajouri/Jammu, Jul 9 (PTI) In a suspected case of food poisoning, a teenager from Nepal died and his cousin brother was hospitalised in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Sunday.

Quoting the statement of the accompanying relatives, the official said the condition of the duo deteriorated shortly after having dinner and they were rushed to hospital.

MPI

New Zealand Food Safety is supporting several importers in their recall of Durra brand products containing tahini due to the possible presence of Salmonella.

“Salmonellosis can be serious, so it is important that people do not eat these products,” says New Zealand Food Safety acting deputy director-general Jenny Bishop.

“Tahini has a long shelf-life, so please check your fridge and throw out the affected products or return them to the place of purchase for a refund.”

The Durra brand products included in this recall are:

• Durra Tahina (400g, 800g, 18kg)
• Durra Halawa Plain (350g, 700g)
• Durra Halawa Pistachio (350g, 700g)
• Durra Halawa Extra Pistachio (350g, 700g)

As our investigations continue, more products may be posted on the recall page.

Food recall: Durra brand Tahina and Halawa

The affected products are sold at various stores and retail outlets throughout New Zealand. They have been removed from store shelves.

The products have been imported from Jordan and have not been re-exported.

Salmonellosis symptoms appear within 12 to 72 hours and include abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, fever, headache, nausea and vomiting. Illness usually lasts between 4 and 7 days but, in more severe cases, it can go on for up to 10 days and cause more serious illness.

If you have consumed any of these products and are concerned for your health, contact your health professional, or call Healthline on 0800 61 11 16.

“Tahini is a high-risk food, so New Zealand Food Safety has been keeping a close watch on problems with tahini overseas,” Ms Bishop says.

“When we saw a potential issue with product from a manufacturer in Jordan, we worked with importers here to ensure they assessed the safety of the tahini sourced from this manufacturer. Testing was a part of this, and the tests came back positive for Salmonella.”

We are continuing to trace where this product is used, so additional recalls may follow. Our recall page will be updated as needed with additional products. You can subscribe to our food recall emails to get the latest information.

Food Safety.Com

The food industry continues to be complicated as new food products with unique ingredients are introduced into the marketplace, supply chain interruptions remain a challenge, and the demand for minimally processed foods grows. Ensuring that appropriate food safety parameters are utilized during the manufacture of food products, with the right supporting documentation, is paramount to providing customers with safe and wholesome food.

The Food Safety Modernization Act’s (FSMA’s) Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation requires that preventive controls for food are validated. Per the regulation, validation “…must include obtaining and evaluating scientific and technical evidence (or, when such evidence is not available or is inadequate, conducting studies) to determine whether the preventive controls, when properly implemented, will effectively control the hazards.” Validations for thermal processes are conducted to demonstrate that a specific thermal process can adequately eliminate or reduce the pathogen of concern to a reasonably safe level.

Performance standards are the specific pathogen reduction levels that must be attained during processing to ensure that proper food safety has been achieved. In the case of traditional canning, these limits have been established over decades of scientific testing of canned foods. The 12-D concept, which describes a thermal process that results in a 12-log reduction of Clostridium botulinum spores, has been established for low-acid canned foods as an acceptable performance standard that results in a very low health risk for consumers.

However, in the case of non-canning processing (heat treatment or an alternative), these performance standards can vary depending on the product type. For some non-canned products such as meats, poultry, and nuts, the performance standards have been established by previous scientific testing. For other food products where thermal processes such as baking or blanching are applied, sufficient scientific data is not available or is still in development to establish the proper performance standards for those respective items.  Applying previously established high-moisture products’ cook time and temperature parameters to low-moisture products has been proven to be ineffective. Other variables must be considered, such as increased thermal resistance of Salmonella spp. in lower-moisture products, as demonstrated by some recent scientific investigations¹ and the effect of impingement cooking on the surfaces of meat products.^2,3

Performance standards can be chosen based on available scientific literature, scientific studies performed by the company, or by using risk-based pathogen modeling. In the case where there is no industry-available scientific literature to reference, food companies are expected to provide their own scientific studies and justifications for the safety of their food products.

WHO

The INFOSAN Secretariat has been following the development of a multi-country outbreak (n=247) of Salmonella Mbandaka ST413 linked to chicken products from Ukraine. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the latest numbers available of the cases reported are Czech Republic (n=5), Estonia (n=3), Finland (n=89), France (n=10), Germany (n=2), Ireland (n=1), Israel (n=4), the Netherlands (n=1), and the United Kingdom (n=132). The latest cases have been detected as of March 2023 in the United Kingdom which have been linked through whole genome sequencing.

Information shared through the European Commission’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), implicated products linked to the outbreak has been distributed to nine countries. The INFOSAN Secretariat has promptly engaged WHO Member States outside of the RASFF to inform them of such distribution, seek additional information concerning the international distribution of implicated products and request information on any possible cases linked to the consumption of the implicated products.

Through close collaboration with the INFOSAN Emergency Contact Point and the National Focal Point for IHR in Ukraine, the INFOSAN Secretariat has been notified that no further international distribution from Ukraine to other WHO Member States, beyond those already notified by the RASFF, has been identified to date. Ukrainian authorities initiated an investigation and informed the Network of the risk management measures implemented at the facilities of the implicated manufacturer.

The INFOSAN Secretariat continues to support WHO Member States to facilitate the exchange of information in order to facilitate investigations and implementation of additional risk management measures. Further details will be shared through the Network when available.

About the hazard: Salmonella is 1 of the 4 key global causes of diarrheal diseases. Salmonella is a ubiquitous and hardy bacteria that can survive several weeks in a dry environment and several months in water.

About the disease: Salmonellosis is a disease caused by the bacteria Salmonella. It is usually characterized by acute onset of fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and sometimes vomiting. The onset of disease symptoms occurs 6–72 hours (usually 12–36 hours) after ingestion of Salmonella, and illness lasts 2–7 days. For more information, please visit the WHO’s website about Salmonella (non-typhoidal) here.

WHO

Food safety incidents

The INFOSAN Secretariat was involved in 47 food safety incidents concerning 53 WHO Member States (MS) and territories from all WHO regions during this first quarter of the year. There were twenty-eight incidents involving a biological hazard [Salmonella spp. (9), Listeria monocytogenes (6), E. coli (3), Clostridium botulinum (2), Hepatitis A (2), Anisakis (1), Cronobacter (1), Entamoeba histolytica (1), Leptospira (1), Norovirus (1), and Shigella (1)]; nine involving a chemical hazard [methanol (2), aflatoxins (1), chlorothalonil (1), ergot alkaloids (1), histamine (1), lead (1), nitrogen (1), and patulin (1)]; six involving an undeclared allergen/ingredient [peanuts (2), egg (1), gluten (1), milk (1), soy (1)]; three involving a physical hazard [glass (1), metal (1), stones (1)]; and one of  an unknown hazard.

The food categories most commonly involved in the 47 incidents during the first quarter of 2023 were fish and other seafood (6),  meat and meat products (6), composite foods (5), nuts and oilseeds (5), cereals and cereal based products (3), fruit and fruit products (3), milk and dairy products (3), snacks, desserts, and other foods (3), vegetables and vegetable products (3), alcoholic beverages (2), food for infants and small children (2), herbs spices and condiments (2), legumes and pulses (1), non-alcoholic beverages (1), and two unknown food sources.

Due to the active engagement of INFOSAN members and partners, 53% of incidents were reported to the INFOSAN Secretariat by INFOSAN members (Emergency Contact Points and Focal Points), 28% of those incidents were communicated to the Secretariat through the European Commission’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), and 19% through various WHO channels.

These incidents involved 53 WHO Member States and territories from all WHO Regions. The affected Member States were distributed as follows: 23 out of 53 Member States from the European Region, 9 out of 27 in the Western Pacific, 8 out of 35 in the Americas, 7 out of 47 in Africa, 4 out of 11 in South-East Asia, and 2 out of 21 in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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